Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
June 8, 2009
1. Top Items–
Budget stalls
The Desert Sun
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Budget stalls
The Desert Sun-6/08/09
By Jake Henshaw
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Restoration work on the
Legislation intended to create a governing council that would oversee recovery efforts at the state's largest lake is struggling to retain authority to perform any work.
At the same time, state departments that could conduct the initial work without the council have seen funding largely stalled by
Still, officials at the Fish and Game and the Water Resources departments said they are managing to do a little work on air and water quality in preparation for larger undertakings.
‘‘Not withstanding our current budget situation, we are still in a forward motion,'' said Dale Hoffman-Floerke, chief of the
This initial work is intended to begin a major rescue effort for the sea that, on its own, is likely to slowly choke to death on increased salinity, eliminating wildlife and exposing more shoreline to winds that would carry dust storms into the
The state Resources Agency has developed a 75-year, $9 billion restoration plan, but legislators have been reluctant to approve it.
Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, is the author of Senate Bill 51 to create a council that she wants to oversee the long-term restoration effort and to implement the initial work outlined in the Resources Agency plan estimated to cost $543 million.
Debate is still underway on SB 51, but it was amended last week so the council could only evaluate restoration options and report recommendations to the Legislature in 2011.
But Kimberly Nicol of the Department of Fish and Game said her agency has authority granted by past legislation, which created the Salton Sea Restoration Fund, to provide habitat for wildlife at the sea.
State resource officials have been eager to use this authority because an agreement among regional water agencies calls for a major portion of the water now flowing into the landlocked sea to be diverted to
‘‘We do have a bit of a time crunch,'' Nicol said. ‘‘Our thinking all along was we didn't have time for the final decisions to be made” on a long-term restoration plan.
Now, a primary goal is to ensure there is at least a shallow saline pool to sustain fish that are food for the sometimes extravagant bird life at the lake on the nation's major West Coast migratory flyway.
Eventually, state officials would like to have perhaps 2,000 acres in these ponds. But the current plan calls for 800 acres, with construction costs of between $2.5 million and $10 million.
The full cost, as well as the timeline, location — there could be more than one pool — and other details are to be developed by a consultant.
But the funds to hire a consultant and pay for the project have been frozen to conserve cash as state policymakers deal with a $24 billion shortfall.
‘‘We are in a holding mode right now,'' said Nicol, a Fish and Game environmental program manager based in Bermuda Dunes.
The restoration fund consists of $47 million in past bond money and $20 million paid by two of the three regional water agencies in the water transfer agreement.
The third water agency is making payments over 45 years to bring the total up to $30 million, Nicol said.
About $29 million of the $47 million has been appropriated by the Legislature for work on the sea, she said, but little has been spent and the rest is frozen.
Fish and Game doesn't want to use the other money for the fish pool because officials fear most of it will be spent developing the site and leaving nothing to run and maintain the project.
‘‘We want to make sure we have money to operate the project also,'' Nicol said.
But she said the project, which was supposed to go to construction in 2011, is at least six months behind schedule now.
Meanwhile, she and Hoffman-Floerke, whose department contracts with Fish and Game for
Work also is underway to set up six air quality monitoring stations and on technical issues, some with federal help such as the impact of possible selenium buildup in the shallow ponds.
While these officials hope the freeze will end soon on the current bond funds, Hoffman-Floerke said that, long-term, the project could benefit from a dedicated governing council to provide continuity and address costs, likely with local, state and federal money.
‘‘We still think that is important,'' she said, ‘‘but we're not sitting around waiting for the council to get up and running.''#
http://www.mydesert.com/article/20090608/NEWS0701/906080305
By Megan Bakker
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A bill that would have required
“They’re just gonna study the sea until it dies,” said Jim Hanks, the board president of the Imperial Irrigation District.
The shoreline of the sea has been receding yearly, and the exposed ground will contribute to dust storms and other negative environmental effects if restoration efforts are not taken. Hanks compared the Salton Sea to the polluted
“That’s not a good thing for us,” Hanks said.
The original version of the bill, as presented by local Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, would have created a Natural Resources Agency to “implement certain preferred alternative activities set forth in the agency’s Salton Sea Ecosystem Restoration Program” and to “develop and implement, or finance, additional pilot or demonstration projects” to restore the Salton Sea.
While the new version keeps the Resources Agency, it now will be asked to “evaluate certain program alternatives” and, by 2011, “recommend to the Legislature a restoration plan for the
Hanks said that while the IID needs to take action on the sea, the state must also keep up its end of the bargain.
The IID is the chief landowner around the sea, which is fed primarily by run-off from agriculture. Under several water transfer agreements made in 2003, it agreed to place a certain amount of water into the sea to offset the negative effects of the transfer. Those same agreements hold IID responsible for environmental mitigation around the sea, but only for negative effects caused by the water transfer.
A bill passed in 2004 by the Legislature holds the state responsible for the full-scale restoration of the sea, and the IID board has passed resolutions in the past pushing the state for action. Environmental studies have already been done, the most recent completed in 2007, which show potential effects and costs of several restoration plans, as well as the cost of doing nothing.
“The state knows what their options are and they seem to be walking away from them,” Hanks said.
But obligations or not, the state is in the middle of a budget crisis. Set to end up $23.4 billion in the hole by the end of the fiscal year, legislators are not open to bills that are going to cost money. And the current preferred alternative for sea restoration comes with a $9 billion price tag.
“That part’s understandable,” Hanks said, about the legislative sticker shock.
But the sea is not going to politely stop receding while the state balances its accounting books.
Hanks said that if air quality issues or other environmental problems arise, the IID is going to have to deal with them. There are a few possibilities in the works, such as a recently proposed idea to encourage solar facilities to build panels on the exposed shoreline. The large panels will help stop dust from getting kicked up by the wind.
The bottom line is that the IID can’t sit back and wait any more, and Hanks said the latest changes to the bill indicate the state is not going to get on board in the near future.
“This was giving the state their last shot at it,” Hanks said.#
http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2009/06/07/local_news/news07.txt
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